TEST DRIVE #1

[thecrossingmods]

TDM # 1

Welcome to The Cavern, wayward souls.
It's good to see you again.

The TDM is game canon and will be active NOV—JAN. For further details about the setting, please reference our current setting page. All the information there is fair game for this TDM.

arrival

— THE RIVER
The River is wide, black, and deep. It is so deep, and so dark, and so cold, that when you wake deep beneath its surface you may, for a moment, think that this is all there is. An abyss, a vacuum, a void. Nothingness in all directions.

It might even be what you expected, coming from wherever you were Before. The blackness, at least. Perhaps the cold. Maybe even the pain: all-encompassing, all-consuming. If a mortal wound brought you here, it might feel like it's being torn open anew, over and over again.

The current is simply slow, however, not non-existent. And you can swim. (Or, even if you can't, that's more of a procedural problem than anything: you don't need to breathe down here, it seems. Perhaps you don't need to breathe anymore at all.)

It hurts. It hurts so much. But if you can just concentrate long enough to pull yourself up onto the rocky shoreline, or even enough to get your head above the surface of the water, that pain will dissipate, almost as if it was never there at all. When you have the presence of mind to examine yourself, you'll find that you are actually hale and whole, with your body exactly as you expect it to be.

There are others in your same predicament. Maybe they can help you; maybe you can help them. You're all in this together, after all.

— THE CAVERN
Once you do finally pull yourself free from The River, you'll find that there was never any abyss at all. On the contrary, there's quite a lot to see — though your eyes might need a minute or two to adjust.

The Cavern yawns around you, the main chamber alone large enough to house a small town, and the ceiling too high to make out through the darkness. There's some light: you can see the eerie green glow of bioluminescent plants lining far-away walls, and tracing the underside of the land bridge that extends over The River. There are pinpricks up high on the cliffs above The River that are organized enough to suggest intervention, or at least planning.

There's something else, too — something orders of magnitude brighter than anything else in the chamber. Its glow is dim on this side of The River, and it's difficult to discern where exactly the light is coming from, just that it isn't coming from anywhere outside the cave. You feel as though you might be safer if you got closer, but maybe that's just because any light at all is comforting in a situation like this. If nothing else, you'd probably find whoever is holding it.

Either way, whether you follow the light or don't, there's plenty of time to be alone with your thoughts. Or to share them, if you're so inclined, with the others that are here with you, emerging one by one from the depths of The River.

Perhaps you've already accepted what's happened to you. Perhaps you need time, and it will take some discussion with the others to arrive at the one thing you all have in common. Perhaps even after that it's still too much, or you still aren't ready. However you get there, though, there's no way around it: you are dead.

If you have questions, The Ferryman is available to answer them.

KEEP TO THE LIGHT

— THE LANTERN
The source of the light is a lantern — specifically, it is The Ferryman's Lantern, an ornate metal lamp hanging from the end of a tall wooden staff. It's large, weathered from use, and despite how improbably far its glow casts — from the land bridge over The River, where The Ferryman is holding their vigil, up the cliffs above and into the subterranean city's many tunnels — it isn't so bright that it can't be comfortably looked at. The Lantern has an unmistakable aura of comfort and safety (maybe because of, or maybe in addition to, the light it casts), no matter how close or far you are from it.

It's only at the very far edges of the glow, where the last bits of light are swallowed by the darkness, that this sense of safety begins to fray. It's here that you can see them, prowling the boundary: wisps of something that you can barely see. Many somethings, in fact.

They can't cross into the light, it seems. All they can do is wait for you to leave it.

— THE SUBTERRANEAN CITY
Maybe you'd rather stay for now, though. There's plenty still to explore within The Lantern's shroud: to start with, the network of tunnels you can see built into the cliffs above The River.

The biggest hurdle is figuring out how to get into the city. You can spy the entrances, marked by dimly glowing torches set into the open mouths of tunnels, but they're so high up! Surely you're not meant to climb?

Well, yes and no. Some investigation reveals a series of wood-plank catwalks leading up to the lowest tunnel entrances, but it's a long climb. If you're feeling impatient (and brave), there's also a system of pulleys, ziplines, and simple rope elevators connecting the higher levels to the lower ones. The ropes have clearly been here a while, but they're probably safe, right? What's the worst that could happen, you die all over again?

(Too soon? We get it.)

There's plenty to see once you reach the city itself, even if there isn't much in way of a population. (Until now, at least!) The lamps and torches lining the walls are packed with the same bioluminescent plantlife that can be found elsewhere in the cavern, so there's no risk of them spontaneously going out. There are signs placed strategically throughout the tunnel system to point you toward major landmarks, using only simple iconography.

The city itself certainly appears lived in, even if it's currently empty; in fact, if you pay close attention to the signage and the decor, there appear to be layers of activity not unlike the rings of a very old tree. Older tapestries covered with newer ones with entirely different patterns; boxes of radically different table trinkets carefully stored in apartment closets, to make room for new ones on a shelf; evidence of the stone market stalls having multiple different usages, many of them apparently in sequence.

Some of those tapestries or trinkets might even be familiar to you, like they came from a culture of your homeworld. Strange, though, since you didn't arrive with anything similar on you. Where could they possibly have come from?

VENTURE IN THE DARK

— THE WRAITHS
The Cavern is big, and The Ferryman's Lantern only reaches so far. If you want to explore, you'll need to brave the darkness— and whatever else might be waiting out there for you.

You'll have some light, at least, even if it isn't much: the luminescent plants grow throughout the cave system, including its winding tunnels and cramped smaller chambers. As for whatever else might be lurking out there, well... without The Lantern, there's not much you can do to keep them at bay.

The Ferryman calls them "wraiths", if you were curious enough to ask beforehand. They're more what you might typically expect from the idea of a ghost: pale and insubstantial, like mist struggling to take and keep a shape.

And they certainly do have shapes; those shapes are just incomplete, sometimes blurry, like a pencil drawing that has smudged and faded over time. They have faces that seem to have been stretched too long or too wide; they have eyes with no color, unblinking, always staring back; some of them have mouths that never close, while others have no mouths at all; some of them have hands with wispy tendrils of grasping fingers; others' limbs seem to have lost their shape entirely.

There are dozens of them lingering just outside the boundary of The Lantern, and many more roaming throughout The Cavern. They do not speak, or otherwise make any sounds at all. They do not swarm, either, even when one of The Ferryman's souls crosses the boundary. They simply watch, and, seemingly at random, some will choose to follow you anywhere you go throughout The Cavern.

Annoying, maybe. Creepy, certainly. But that seems to be all. Just remember: The Lantern is the only thing that keeps the wraiths at bay. They can't hurt you, out in the darkness, but they will notice you, they will follow you, and they will remember you.

If your exploration takes you to the catacombs, you may find that your wraith shadows get lost just as easily as you in the tunnel system. Perhaps they get distracted? Or maybe they have some curiosity about the tunnels that outweighs their curiosity about you? Either way, it's possible to lose them for some amount of time there— but the wraiths aren't bound by petty things like physics the way you are. They will find you again eventually, either by floating through some wall, appearing at the dead-end of a tunnel, or even just waiting at the entrance for you to emerge again.

If, on the other hand, you find yourself stumbling upon the whispering pools, you'll discover that wraiths gather in droves there, circling the pools, sometimes trying in vain to press their faces to the water. The wraiths that followed you here seem to be the only exception; whatever the pools are saying, it's apparently not interesting enough to draw them away from you.

Aren't you lucky?

---

Image credits: 1, 2, 3 + stock imagery unless otherwise noted

code

Comments

Nagito Komaeda | Danganronpa - post DR3

[blindluck]

(Note: Nagito's left hand and part of his arm is a metal prosthetic.)

A; The River
[The pain is overwhelming; Nagito isn't used to that. There are very few times in his life where he can remember pain being all-consumingly distracting, making all his thoughts fly away. There are several long, confused moments where he wonders--because he knows he was dying, had been dying for years--if the others had thrown his body into the ocean a little too early. Then he bumps up against a rocky wall.

Lucky. His thoughts reassemble themselves. It's just pain. He grabs the rocks and works his way up. He gasps reflexively when he breaks the surface--later he'll think about how little being underwater actually mattered to his lungs. Right now, he drags himself out of the river, lying supine on the floor of the cavern. He has no idea where he is or how he got here. He's sure he shouldn't be anywhere at all. He lifts his left arm, looking at the prosthetic, which whirs faintly as he opens and closes his fingers.

The pain is gone. He sits up, calm, and waves to the first person he sees nearby as if this is a completely ordinary situation.]

Do you know which direction the cave entrance is?

B; The Subterannian City
[On the one hand, an underground city is an impressive find. On the other hand, Nagito can only think that's its exactly the kind of thing he would stumble upon. He's tallying up the good and bad luck of this situation in his mind, so when he gets back to everyone else he knows what he'll be bringing back with him.

He searches through closets and shelves of the apartment he's found without shame, trying to learn more about this place he's found himself in. He's aware he's not the only one here, but that's fine.]

It's not unusual for apartments to see lots of different tenants, but it is a bit strange that none of them seem to throw out whatever the last tenants left behind--ah.

[There's a Hope's Peak ring in this box, dented and worn but recognizable. He pulls it out of the box and turns it over in his hands thoughtfully.]

C; The Wraiths
[Nagito lingers at the edge of the lantern's light, watching the blurry, shifting creatures. Wraiths, according to the Ferryman, and it does seem like a fitting name for them. It's not the kind of thing he's familiar with. He kicks a rock out into the darkness, but the wraiths don't react; they just watch him. If there is a way out, it's somewhere out there, but dealing with ghosts... His instincts, honed over two decades of wild luck, tell him it's dangerous. He isn't sure it matters if he's dead.]

This situation is a little unreasonable, isn't it?

D; Wildcard
(Have something else in mind? Hit me up at maiiau!)

b

[proposed]

It is strange, isn't it? I'd like to think of it as a housewarming gift, but it's more likely to be a way to shore up confusion and unsettle the next tenant.

[ Case in point, something seems to have caught this boy's attention. Dazai leans forward a little to inspect the item in his hand. There doesn't seem to be anything special about it at a glance, but the emblem on it is curious. ]

... A ring?

[blindluck]

That's kind of a pessimistic thought, isn't it? [Not that Nagito disagrees, exactly. There's part of him that wants to snatch the ring up immediately, and part of him that has more complicated feelings about it. And then there's the part of him that feels conflicted about his complicated feelings.]

It's from Hope's Peak. Have you heard of it? [Everyone should know about Hope's Peak, but this place is strange.]

[proposed]

[ It is pessimistic, but unfortunately their current scenario doesn't lend itself to anything else. There's no harm in it, at least, as long as they don't take the bait.

Dazai shakes his head. ]

No, I've never heard of it. Is it a school?

[ A class ring, perhaps? There's only so many things that an emblem could correspond to, and Nagito seems to be of college age. ]

[blindluck]

[Is it a school. It strikes him just the right way, and so he can't help but chuckle.] Yes. A very famous school. If you don't recognize it, this situation is even more strange than it seemed. [He tilts his head.] Or you don't pay much attention to anything.

[He's joking, but it may be difficult to tell based on his tone.]

[proposed]

[ Dazai chuckles. No offense taken. ]

Hmm... Well, I have been distracted lately, but if it's that famous I'm sure I would've heard of it. Guess this place is stranger than we thought... Were you a student there?

[blindluck]

Yes, I went to high school there. [As much of high school as he finished, anyway. Until things ended.

...Here's the part where he would introduce himself as the former Super High School Level Lucky Student. But does that mean anything here, with someone who seems like they really don't know about Hope's Peak? Of course, talent matters, it must, but his talent never has, and so--]

Oh, but I wasn't really that impressive, not like my classmates. Well, I suppose if you really don't know about it, you won't have any expectations at all, but if you happen to meet anyone else who went to Hope's Peak I wouldn't want you to base your impressions on me! Everyone else was very talented, the best at what they did.

the city

[fefellocaelum]

[These apartments look...strange, Amaya must admit; given that Fefello Caelum was rather behind on a technological level, the idea of housing of this type is a foreign wonder to Amaya, and truthfully, she'd be content to let Nagito go about his business, but...

It's the talk that seems to make Amaya stop in front of the door of the apartment he's rummaging through--inwardly keeping commentary about the mess he's making to herself, at least. Still, he seems to have paused on something, and it's...huh.]

...Where I come from, one does not typically clear the house of another unless the circumstances are dire. Be it fear of weather, of war, or of familial passing, one will typically keep items in their place, if they intend to return.

Did you find something of interest, my child...?

[...one of these days amaya will stop sounding like the priestess/nun she technically is, but today is not that day,,,]

[blindluck]

[Nagito doesn't think he's ever been referred to in such a way. Of course, his memories of his parents have been hazy for years now, but it doesn't sound like the kind of thing they would have said either. Nagito holds the ring out, its crest on display.]

A Hope's Peak ring. It's not the kind of thing I'd expect to find here, but maybe if someone was wearing it they could have dropped it.

[Nagito didn't come with anything much, but he did have his clothing, so it doesn't seem impossible someone who'd died had been wearing a ring. There had been--a lot of opportunities, not that long ago.

He's speaking as if he expects Amaya to recognize Hope's Peak. Anyone from his world would.]

[fefellocaelum]

Hope's...Peak? [The lack of recognition is clear in Amaya's expression; usually she's not able to express much, but there is the widening of her eyes, briefly, before it's schooled back into something acceptable. Which is...unfortunately quite blank, but so it goes--] ...I do apologize; unless you are referring to a peak at which the ore for the ring itself is mined, then I unfortunately have...never heard of such a place. Fefello Caelum is rather...behind, in terms of worldly advancements.

[They don't even have truly organized schooling where she comes from. Even so, Amaya tilts her head a bit, chancing to walk into the room a little more. ...Probably idly cleaning up anything Nagito has left out, sorry--]

Do you believe that someone here, they may have come from a similar place as you...?

[blindluck]

I didn't drop it, so it follows that someone else must have. [But he frowns thoughtfully even as he says it, eyes dropping back to the ring.] But I don't think you're lying about not recognizing Hope's Peak, so things are even more strange than they seemed! Unless you're really living under a rock you'd have recognized the name immediately.

[Or dying under a rock? He'll have to think about the finer points of terminology here later.]

Of course, I've never heard of Fefello Caelum, either.

[fefellocaelum]

Isolated village deep within the forests of Quercetem, so...about as close to it as one gets. ...You may have to amend that living part, however.

[Is that. Humor? It's at least not said with a derisive air, though it almost seems a touch sarcastic. But there's something faintly amused there, at least.]

My people are unfortunately quite unfamiliar with the ways of the outside world, despite our best attempts. I must confess, your lack of knowledge of Fefello Caelum rings much the same for me, albeit for different reasons. But perhaps that lends credence to us coming from different lands, if little else. I know there is much of Madide left unexplored, after all.

[Even so, as Amaya cleans, she's curious.]

...Tell me of this Hope's Peak you speak of. Is it a far off land, or something different in entirety?

[blindluck]

[Quercetem, Madide... Their usage suggests place names, but Nagito has no idea where they might be. It's been a long time since he's studied geography, but still. It invites further probing.]

Hope's Peak is the most famous school in the world. It's in Japan, and it selects the most talented high school students. [...] I'm something of an exception, though! I'm not really special.

C

[callsignhornet]

[Logically, Lyn knows that if her instincts are correct, anyone of any age could appear here. Still, seeing a teenager gives her pause.

His lack of caution makes her squash the momentary urge to look around for who he's recognized. Instead, she nods her head towards the glow further in the cavern.]

The light is usually a good sign, though approaching cautiously would be a good idea.

[Her gaze flicks to his prosthetic hand, though she doesn't comment in either direction.]

I'm assuming you're also a new arrival?

[blindluck]

[Nagito nods, even as he looks toward the indicated glow.] I pulled myself out of the river--a few hours ago, I think. [It's difficult to tell the time here. Maybe he should have gotten in the habit of wearing a watch.] Light is usually good, but anglerfish produce light too, you know?

[Dangerous. Just asking for it, with his luck. Does that matter if he's dead? But he can't just shake off the instinct.]

[callsignhornet]

[Hours?

His lack of urgency makes Lyn curious, but for the moment she doesn’t indulge. Better to get him moving in the same direction of the others.]

Fair point. Safety in numbers might be a better idea.

What’s your name?

[blindluck]

That's how fish do it! [But enough about the fish-related metaphors Nagito has caused to happen. He introduces himself family-name first, of course:] Komaeda Nagito. What about you?

[callsignhornet]

Commander Shepard. [She nods towards the light, waiting for him a beat before heading toward the glow.]

Are you hoping to see anyone here?

[blindluck]

[Nagito hesitates in the safety of the lantern's light. Instincts say this can't possibly be safe for someone with luck like his... But he's dead, right? After a moment, curiosity wins out, and he follows after.]

It's better if I don't recognize anyone, isn't it? [He laughs lightly.] And so far everyone I've met just got here, so I don't know if I should be looking for anyone who died a long time ago.

But it would be nice to see my childhood dog again!

[Amongst other people he isn't going to talk to a stranger about.]

a

[uncrave]

[ The surroundings don't bother Mithrun. Few things do, and currently he's sitting in the shallows working up to the effort of getting up and actually doing things. He can't identify a lack of need for certain things because he honestly hasn't had that for a long while -

But when someone speaks to him he does at least glance up after a moment. He's long since gotten used to his own prosthetic, so his false eye is reflected in this form. ]

...sure. [ He doesn't not know where anything is. Even if he knew where he was he wouldn't be trustworthy with directions, given this doesn't have the same feel as a Dungeon. ]

[blindluck]

[Nagito studies the face of the man who answered him, but not because of the eye. The eye is noted, but what interests Nagito is the lack of expression. Nagito's smile doesn't flicker.]

Oh, you do? Can you lead the way out, then? [Really, "sure" is kind of a wishy-washy answer when it's said like that by someone who looks like they were also in the river. But this person still might know the way out, or at least have an idea of where they are, or at least be interesting to speak to.]

[uncrave]

[ Everyone he's seen so far has been a tallman. It should probably be somehow unsettling, but Mithrun can't work up anything more than clinical interest in the fact. It could be relevant or it could be complete happenstance - but he makes a note of it for later regardless.

After a beat, he gets to his feet. At five foot one he's going to have to look up a bit at Komaeda. Annoying, but not unusual. ]

This way, then.

[ Disclaimer: he has no clue where he's going. He's just picking a direction away from the water and walking off. ]

[blindluck]

Thanks! [While Nagito is still undecided as to if this person actually knows where they're going or not, it doesn't stop him from following, wringing out the end of his long jacket as he walks.

He thinks he sees pointed ears beneath that hair, but Nagito isn't sure. That's not really more strange than waking up after dying, though, really.]

So, did you climb out of the river, too?

[uncrave]

[ He's not wrong. Mithrun's ears are clearly not human, for all that the ends of them have been cut off. They've been healed for a long time and anyone familiar with an elf would see them for what they are - and it isn't something he's hiding.

But he doesn't bother to push his hair out of his face, wet as it is, so. ]

I did. I suppose I fell in again. [ The logical progression of memory doesn't quite work, but that doesn't mean much at all. ] Dungeons do shift.

[blindluck]

Dungeons? Are you an adventurer or an escaped prisoner? [The adventurer part is mostly a joke. Not as much as Nagito would think under other, non-waking-up-in-a-cave conditions. The escaped prisoner part is only half a joke.]